This invention relates to personal mobile communication devices and corresponding small handheld apparatuses designed for data acquisition and communication.
There exist prior art personal communication devices and/or mobile organizers, such as notebook microcomputers or similar apparatuses which are small, lightweight, portable workstations operated in one""s hand and/or lap. Such a personal device can be equipped with a number of accessories and application programs offering service functions according to needs.
It is known, for example, systems of the type disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,441 (Parulski et al.) wherein a separate camera is connected via a flexible or fixed connection wire to a portable computer. From the user""s point of view, this kind of a system is too laborious: the user has to carry along two separate apparatuses and possibly a connection cable, too. Such a camera cannot remain attached to the host device all the time because it is attached to the host device by means of an electrical connector, thus being highly susceptible to impacts or dropping.
It is also known to build a camera inside a mobile communication device. Such an arrangement is disclosed e.g. in the Japanese patent document 06268582A. In the system described in said document the camera is an integral part of the communication device. The system comprises a camera unit, which reads picture information in digital format, a mobile communication unit, which handles the radio connection, a bus, to which the camera unit and the mobile communication unit are connected, and a control unit, which controls the operation of the camera unit and the mobile communication unit. This kind of an arrangement eliminates most of the disadvantages of the system described above, but the disadvantage here is that the camera is integrated: the buyer has to pay for the camera unit even if he did not need it. In addition, the camera unit can only be used in connection with the mobile communication device to which it is integrated.
A Finnish patent application 942334 (Nokia Mobile Phones Ltd.) discloses a system wherein a camera built on a PCMCIA card can be connected to a mobile communication device. A disadvantage of such a system is the extrinsic quality of the PCMCIA card camera: it is attached to a connector on the side of the host device, thereby making the host device bigger and altering its appearance. Furthermore, an impact may cause the camera to come off the host device. In addition, the construction of the PCMCIA camera described in said application is complex: it includes, among other things, a picture-processing unit for the processing of pictures by the camera card.
An object of the invention is to provide a system for personal data acquisition and communication with characteristics easily modified by the user. Another object of the invention is to provide a system to which new functions and properties can be added even after the host device has been completed. A further object of the invention is to provide a system in which the host device constitutes an integral whole even when the expansion card is connected to the host device. A yet further object of the invention is to provide a system which, in addition to audio and text based communication, facilitates visual communication.
The objects are achieved by realizing a modular system comprising a host device and expansion cards which can be fitted in the host device, and by realizing some of the system functions on the expansion cards. Then the user can add a new function in the host device by installing an expansion card in a connector socket in the host device. In the system according to the invention, the expansion card and the connector socket are realized in such a manner that an expansion card attached to the connector socket remains inside the body of the host device, thereby making the entity constituted by the host device and the expansion card seem to the user as one single apparatus. External equipment related to a function realized by the expansion card, such as an optical unit of a digital camera, may also be located partly or wholly outside the body of the host device, depending on the function of said equipment. Advantageously the expansion cards comprise, in addition to the expansion card hardware, also the software required for controlling the expansion cards, in which case the host device receives the programs in question when an expansion card is inserted in it and the programs are removed when the expansion card is removed.
One object of this invention is to provide a new expansion card by means of which a camera can be added as an integral part to a portable apparatus, especially a mobile communication device.
This object is achieved by realizing in connection with an expansion card a digital camera comprising a picture-sensing element, an optical unit and a memory element for storing the program controlling the operation of the camera.
An object of this invention is to provide a portable apparatus for personal communication, to which the user can in a simple manner add new accessories and additional functions without having to separately install control software for the accessory in question, and said apparatus not being provided with the control software of the accessory in question in the manufacturing stage of said apparatus.
This object is achieved by providing in the apparatus an expansion card connector socket, and by making the apparatus read identification information from an expansion card inserted in the connector socket so as to enable the apparatus to start the program on the expansion card which controls the operation of the expansion card.
The system according to the invention is characterized in that the host device comprises at least one connector socket for expansion cards and the system further comprises at least one expansion card adapted to be installed inside the host device in order to add an extra function in the function selection of the host device.
The expansion card according to the invention is characterized in that an additional function is fitted on the expansion card in order to make the functions of said device more versatile, and the hardware required to realize said additional function is fitted on said expansion card, and a memory element for storing the software required for controlling the hardware is fitted on said expansion card.
The device according to the invention is characterized in that the device is arranged to read identification information from an expansion card connected to the expansion card connector socket and to determine whether said identification information indicates that the expansion card comprises a program needed for controlling the expansion card, and, if the identification information of the expansion card indicates that the expansion card comprises the program needed for controlling the operation of the expansion card, to control the functions of the expansion card by means of said program, needed for controlling the expansion card.
The invention is directed to a modular personal information acquisition and communication system, preferably a cellular telephone system the functions of which can be increased by means of various expansion cards. Thus, the host device in the system according to the invention, say, a mobile communication device, need not be equipped with all the possible functions in the manufacturing stage but some of the functions can be realized by expansion cards so that the user can add a desired function to the host device when needed. The expansion cards are small in size and they are installed substantially inside the host device, such as a mobile communication device, thereby making the entity constituted by the host device and the expansion card seem to the user as a single compact device. Advantageously, the expansion cards include, in addition to the required hardware, also the software needed to control the operation of the modules.